Edmund Spenser's epic poem The Faerie Queene was published in the years 1590 (books I–III) and 1596 (books I–VI, i.e. complete). It is primarily an allegorical work, and allegories were not new in the Renaissance: allegories can also be found in classical literature and medieval literature. Wikipedia mentions the work's theological structure, especially in book I. But I doubt that literature inspired by theology was new either.
Except for the date and publication, what characteristics make Spenser's The Faerie Queene an example of Renaissance literature? Is there anything else than the relevance of theology mentioned in the Wikipedia article?
(Periodisation is challenging. Simply claiming that the work was written between year x and year y is insufficient, since that raises the question why those years are considered as constituting a specific literary period in the first place.)
